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Area college students would like to see other and more varied dining options in downtown Scranton, although the restaurants already there have an undeniable appeal, a new survey found.

Dining is the top reason students from the University of Scranton and other Lackawanna County campuses venture into the downtown, school representatives said Wednesday in releasing the results of the 2017 Downtown Scranton student spending survey.

“The downtown is a consistent draw for dining. That is something students have found,” Julie Schumacher Cohen, University of Scranton director of community and government relations, said during the presentation at Leahy Hall.

“They are going downtown. They are using the cafes and restaurants. They may want other ones. They may want additional ones. But that is a consistent draw.”

The survey, conducted in March by the Northeast Pennsylvania Colleges and Universities marketing group, surveyed 883 students — 706 undergraduates and 107 graduate students — from nine schools about their perception and use of the downtown for dining, shopping, cultural events and entertainment.

The most detailed data came from the University of Scranton, which compared the latest findings to the results of similar surveys conducted in 2011 and 2014.

While the average university undergraduate spends about $36 a month eating downtown — a figure basically unchanged since 2011 — the 2017 survey found the students’ familiarity with 20 specific downtown restaurants increased over the period from 53 percent to 58 percent.

Overall restaurant patronage grew slightly between 2011 and 2017, from 25 percent to 29 percent, although some individual cafes and restaurants enjoyed patronage jumps as high as 77 percent.

Among the respondents from all of the schools, more than 96 percent reported dining at downtown restaurants, said Amy Gruzesky, Penn State Worthington Scranton coordinator of community relations and communications.

Of those, nearly 75 percent said they spent at least $21 a month on off-campus meals, with 30-plus percent spending more than $50 per month.

When students were asked what new venues they would like to see in downtown Scranton, the most popular response by far was chain restaurants, with many listing specific franchises such as Chipotle and Panera Bread. More clothing stores was a distant second choice, followed by national retail stores.

Among University of Scranton undergraduates, just over half said they shop downtown, down from 66 percent in the 2014 survey. Dickson City remains their most popular shopping destination, with 60 percent reporting they go there at least once or twice a month.

The survey found the ongoing transition of the Mall at Steamtown into the Marketplace at Steamtown had a major impact on students’ downtown shopping habits. In 2014, 23 percent of students said they never shopped at the mall, a figure that soared to 64 percent in the latest survey.

“I don’t think that is surprising,” Cohen said. “I think actually there is some good news there in that we can see an opportunity as the Marketplace makes improvements ... that the students will come back.”

Both off-campus spending for entertainment and the percentage of students who come downtown for entertainment slipped in 2017, the survey showed.

La Festa Italiana, held each Labor Day weekend on Courthouse Square, is easily the most popular downtown entertainment event among University of Scranton students, with 84 percent attending. The Scranton St. Patrick’s Parade is second at 54 percent, followed by First Friday at 32 percent.

Lori Nidoh, the university’s director of marketing communications, said the those findings track well with another open-ended question on the survey.

Asked what other entertainment or social activities they would like to see downtown, students in nearly equal numbers cited more food festivals and fairs, along with concerts and other live music events. More college-focused events also landed high on the list.

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